I am working on a series called Tomorropolis, I need some feedback

FuturisticEggThief · Jul 10, 2018 6:28 PM

I've been working on this series called 'Tomorropolis' since March 2016. Tomorropolis will be a retro-futuristic series set in the early 2000s. The design of the characters is voxel-like. I'm pretty nervous about posting this (trolls), but hey, this community is friendly and what-not. The main character's name is Josh. I feel like something is missing from his design, but I can't put my finger on it. So some feedback would be nice.

Also I want to clarify the personality of Josh for reference. Josh is a mature, calm, and depressed man who misses his childhood. He is intelligent but is a young adult, therefore he isn’t the wisest person around. He also has some people skills but isn’t a charmer. When threatened, he sometimes sarcastically throws insults at the person(s) threatening him usually to no avail. And finally, he usually likes to correct people when he thinks that he/she is making a bad decision.

P.S: If this is not in the right topic please move mods.

Last edited by FuturisticEggThief (Jul 21, 2018 7:23 AM)

HVG · Jul 15, 2018 5:12 AM

Interesting, what sort of series are you working on? All I see is a picture of a RoBlox avatar on Imgur. Correct me if I’m wrong

FuturisticEggThief · Jul 15, 2018 6:27 AM

HVG wrote:

Interesting, what sort of series are you working on?

Tomorropolis is an animated series that was initially inspired by Futurama and 1950s/60s 'peak at the future' documentaries, stuff like this:

1960s Futuristic Model City of Tomorrow: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WdL-c-4m4dw

1960s Futuristic Homes and Kitchens: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZgDhktjWPs

Modern American Design - Classic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYl0bF7jhzI

And because usually the year the future in these videos take place in is typically the year 1999 or 2000, the show takes place in the early 2000s. As time went on however, I started getting a nostalgic soft spot for the late 90s and early 2000s, and for all forms of retro-futuristic designs. Because of this, I decided to combine elements from the actual early 2000s and pretty much every form of retro-futuristic design elements.

HVG wrote:

All I see is a picture of a RoBlox avatar on Imgur. Correct me if I’m wrong

The 'RoBlox' avatar is in an art style known as 'voxel'. (Look up 'voxel character' on Google or whatever search engine you use, and you'll see what I'm talking about). The reason why is simple, character design isn't my strong point, I'm much better at set design. (I think.) Personally I like how Josh is designed, but I feel he needs an extra element to his design, but I don't know what that extra element is, feedback would be appreciated.

36IStillLikeSpyro36 · Jul 15, 2018 4:11 PM

i'm thinking you want something subtle, but easily recognizable. like for example, you don't want to go so far as to... give him an alligator head or something like that, but maybe something subtle like a tattoo. or, maybe create a shirt design for him. a certain kind of pattern or something.

or you could add something to his hair. like ........ i dunno, maybe the tips of his hair are a different color from the rest of his hair? tongue

FuturisticEggThief · Jul 15, 2018 6:04 PM

36IStillLikeSpyro36 wrote:

or you could add something to his hair. like ........ i dunno, maybe the tips of his hair are a different color from the rest of his hair?

This suggestion intrigues me. I'll try it. Thanks for the feedback.

HVG · Jul 18, 2018 1:11 AM

FuturisticEggThief wrote:

HVG wrote:
Interesting, what sort of series are you working on?
Tomorropolis is an animated series that was initially inspired by Futurama and 1950s/60s 'peak at the future' documentaries, stuff like this:
1960s Futuristic Model City of Tomorrow: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WdL-c-4m4dw
1960s Futuristic Homes and Kitchens: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZgDhktjWPs
Modern American Design - Classic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYl0bF7jhzI
And because usually the year the future in these videos take place in is typically the year 1999 or 2000, the show takes place in the early 2000s. As time went on however, I started getting a nostalgic soft spot for the late 90s and early 2000s, and for all forms of retro-futuristic designs. Because of this, I decided to combine elements from the actual early 2000s and pretty much every form of retro-futuristic design elements.
HVG wrote:
All I see is a picture of a RoBlox avatar on Imgur. Correct me if I’m wrong
The 'RoBlox' avatar is in an art style known as 'voxel'. (Look up 'voxel character' on Google or whatever search engine you use, and you'll see what I'm talking about). The reason why is simple, character design isn't my strong point, I'm much better at set design. (I think.) Personally I like how Josh is designed, but I feel he needs an extra element to his design, but I don't know what that extra element is, feedback would be appreciated.

It looks great, you explained about your character’s personality which is good, different choices of clothing would be good. Great work.

FuturisticEggThief · Jul 18, 2018 2:44 AM

HVG wrote:

It looks great, you explained about your character’s personality which is good, different choices of clothing would be good. Great work.

Explaining a character's personality along with the design is what I felt was a smart move because a character's design usually reflects the personality of the character. Thanks for the feedback.

Last edited by FuturisticEggThief (Jul 18, 2018 2:44 AM)

FuturisticEggThief · Jul 21, 2018 2:07 AM

Hello all. I'm back to show off the general look of the series. The series' look is inspired by the dithering of the PS1 and the pixelation of older video games, so to achieve this, all frames are reduced in size to 240p, but then the images are resized to 1440p without interpolation to give a very sharp and crisp image, while still old school in appearance. Also, the backgrounds are positioned dithered with an average color count of 32 colors per background image, while characters have a black 1 pixel thick border and Floyd–Steinberg dithering with an average color count of 16 colors per character.

For demonstration purposes, I have used the Stone Hill map from Spyro the Dragon as a background with Josh in the foreground to showcase the visual appearance of the series. (Specifically the image compression.)

As a side note, the aspect ratio will be 21:9 and will be in approx 12 FPS. It is an animation after all.

(IMAGE LINK): https://imgur.com/jXKXRlq

Last edited by FuturisticEggThief (Jul 21, 2018 2:09 AM)

36IStillLikeSpyro36 · Jul 21, 2018 3:34 AM

i don't know what most of the terms you used mean, but it all does add up to a pretty darn good "PS1" look! big_smile i always feel like that stuff is kind of underappreciated. people like 8-bit stuff, but the PS1 era stuff that was....... "not super high quality, but eh, good enough" had a cool aesthetic that i like a lot smile

FuturisticEggThief · Jul 21, 2018 7:21 AM

36IStillLikeSpyro36 wrote:

i don't know what most of the terms you used mean,

dithering: the noise used on low quality imagery to reduce the color count without making the picture look like garbage. Here is a comparison of a dithered image (the image on the left, with an image without dithering (the image on the right): https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/emu … 0716184206

interpolation: I know what it does but because I don't know how to describe it, I will link an article instead: https://www.vision-systems.com/articles … iques.html

36IStillLikeSpyro36 wrote:

i always feel like that stuff is kind of underappreciated. people like 8-bit stuff, but the PS1 era stuff that was....... "not super high quality, but eh, good enough" had a cool aesthetic that i like a lot

I kind of want my animations to stand out a little, which is why I was trying to choose a style that no one uses, PS1 dithering with voxel characters was the style I chose (odd choice, but I like it because it is odd, and because the look of the games on the PS1 has a special charm that hasn't been in games since.)

FuturisticEggThief · Jul 21, 2018 8:54 AM

Also, I have released the music that will be used as the intro: https://youtu.be/QWpf4DFb2E4. I am attempting to go for a late 90s/early 2000s techno kind of sound. Something like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_UM_Om0eH3A. If there are any issues, let me know.

(Also the percussion track was the hardest thing to get right, specifically the volume. The percussion would either be too loud or too quiet, I think I got it right.)

Last edited by FuturisticEggThief (Jul 21, 2018 8:54 AM)

36IStillLikeSpyro36 · Jul 21, 2018 5:12 PM

sounds good to me, man! smile

FuturisticEggThief · Apr 08, 2019 9:27 AM

UPDATE: As of April 3rd 2019, I have decided to rename the series from 'Tomorropolis' to 'New Millennium Life', along with a redesign for Josh coming soon.

#1 Jul 10, 2018 6:28 PM

I am working on a series called Tomorropolis, I need some feedback

#2 Jul 15, 2018 5:12 AM

Re: I am working on a series called Tomorropolis, I need some feedback

#3 Jul 15, 2018 6:27 AM

Re: I am working on a series called Tomorropolis, I need some feedback

#4 Jul 15, 2018 4:11 PM

Re: I am working on a series called Tomorropolis, I need some feedback

#5 Jul 15, 2018 6:04 PM

Re: I am working on a series called Tomorropolis, I need some feedback

#6 Jul 18, 2018 1:11 AM

Re: I am working on a series called Tomorropolis, I need some feedback

#7 Jul 18, 2018 2:44 AM

Re: I am working on a series called Tomorropolis, I need some feedback

#8 Jul 21, 2018 2:07 AM

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#9 Jul 21, 2018 3:34 AM

Re: I am working on a series called Tomorropolis, I need some feedback

#10 Jul 21, 2018 7:21 AM

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#11 Jul 21, 2018 8:54 AM

Re: I am working on a series called Tomorropolis, I need some feedback

#12 Jul 21, 2018 5:12 PM

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#13 Apr 08, 2019 9:27 AM

Re: I am working on a series called Tomorropolis, I need some feedback

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